Tap Oil Seeks to Sell Stakes in 4 Australia Oil, Gas Blocks

Australia’s Tap Oil Ltd. is making good on a pledge to sell more assets to boost its cash pile, sending out information documents on several stakes in oil and gas fields off the country’s northern coast.

Among the assets up for sale is Tap’s 10% stake in the Apache Corp.-operated Taunton oil field in Western Australia’s Carnarvon Basin, which is currently being assessed for development after oil flowed from a test well at rates of 2,800 barrels per day.

The Taunton oil field in license TL/2 is close to an existing production facility on Airlie Island, with Tap boosting its appeal to bidders by offering a 12.4% stake in the neighboring TP/7 exploration permit as well.

Tap wants to sell its stakes in the oil and gas fields as a package, but has signaled to buyers that it will listen to offers for individual assets.

“We continue to pursue the sale of assets that we consider non-core,” Tap Chief Executive Troy Hayden said Friday, declining to elaborate. It isn’t known how much the assets could fetch.

Also up for sale is Tap’s 12% stake in the Prometheus and Rubicon gas discoveries in the Bonaparte Basin offshore northwestern Australia, which are operated by Italy’s Eni SpA.

The license – WA-34-R – may contain 335 billion cubic feet of natural gas, although further work is needed to confirm the true size of the resource.

Options to develop the gas fields include supplying the Inpex Corp.-led Ichthys liquefied natural gas project as a pipeline to the Darwin processing facility is set to pass through the block. Other options including supplying the Bonaparte LNG project planned by GDF Suez SA and Santos Ltd., or supplying domestic gas users in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Tap wants to sell its 22.47% stake in a license containing the Maitland gas and condensate field, which also counts Apache and Santos as shareholders. The gas field, found in 1992, lies in less than 100 meters of water in the Carnarvon Basin and is close to energy infrastructure such as the John Brookes Platform and the East Spar line.

The WA-33-R license covering the Maitland field is due to expire in late November, but could be extended for a further 5 years.